Erick Oscar Finds Light in the Reality of Growing Older on “It Sucks Getting Old”
The song “It Sucks Getting Old” by Erick Oscar takes a phrase which might at first seem rather casual and transforms it into something truly human. It was written for his 77-year-old father-in-law, Joe, who frequently says the title expression after losing his wife to cancer and a number of close friends; the song thus faces head-on the grief, loneliness and difficult changes that are associated with growing older. Nevertheless, Erick does not leave the listener in such a state of despair. On the contrary, the song slowly shifts towards the value of remembering the people, the experiences and the memories that have made life worthwhile. This balance is what gives the song its emotional power since it admits that getting older involves having to say good-bye to the people we love, while at the same time acknowledging that those relationships stay with us through the memories we keep.
The song fits well within the broader context of Two Flags, One Heart, a country-Americana album inspired by Erick’s love of honest storytelling and his work in acoustic songwriting. Songs like “I Choose to Go On Remembering You”, “Borrowed Peace”, “One More Mile” and “Let Me Tell You Now” show that the album is concerned with memory, relationships, perseverance and the complex emotions associated with the various stages of life. “It Sucks Getting Old” has a particularly intimate feel since it is based on a genuine family experience rather than an abstract concept; Erick takes Joe’s repeated phrase and assigns it a more profound emotional significance, transforming a simple remark about aging into a reflection on loss and the passage of time. The country setting matches this style exactly, enabling the song to sound conversational and genuine while allowing its message to be fully expressed.
This directness is the result of an artist who has for many years used songwriting as a means of working through his life. His father was a singer and it was he who first taught Erick love songs and ballads when he was a child; ever since then he has spent over 35 years playing acoustic guitar with his worship group and has written more than 1,200 songs. His recent decision to get involved with music production software has given him another method of bringing his songs to life, enabling him to control the style, tempo, the vocals, the instruments and the arrangements himself. In ‘It Sucks Getting Old’ this background provides the basis for a song whose main strength lies in its humanity: there is sadness in it, yet also gratitude; there is grief, but also remembrance. In the end, Erick takes an unpleasant truth about growing older and turns it into a message that even though people may leave us, the memories we have made with them can remain a permanent part of who we are.
The statement ‘It Sucks Getting Old’ deals with the pain of aging and loss without falling into sadness, instead transforming grief into a sincere reminder that the memories we create can survive the moments themselves.
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